


The Burning Empress and The Lone Stranger

by Shiroe_the_Kitsune



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-11-21 16:00:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11360784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiroe_the_Kitsune/pseuds/Shiroe_the_Kitsune
Summary: A young boy named Siegfried Stone, lived a quiet unhappy, lonely life. His only joy in this time of his life was his video games, on one normal day he woke up to find himself in the world of Pokemon. Now alone he finds new friends and family in the Pokemon who join him in his journey in this familiar yet alien world. He will face many trials, some coming from himself and his bonds with his Pokemon will be tested. Will he come out a new stronger person, or will he not come out on the other side at all?





	1. Prologue: A new Beginning

On a planet called Earth there was a boy who was dissatisfied with his life, by no means was it really a horrible life, but he was rarely ever truly happy. 10 year old Siegfried Stone, lived a life which led him to closing himself off from others. He was a short lanky boy, which led him to being picked on or used by others often, his dark black hair was long for what most boys his age had, his bangs coming down into his face just above his eyes, emerald green eyes peering out from just underneath his hair. He was generally a quiet odd kid, while he wished for company to enjoy he spent most of his time alone, by his choice, he did not trust others very well and therefore didn’t spend time to build up that trust. And his complicated relationship with his parents and friends didn’t help the young man at all.

His father was an outstanding man in every conceivable way you could think, brilliant, strong, hard-working, kind. His tall stature, calm generous nature and strong athletic build often painted a picture of the perfect man to those around him and his incredibly bright existence shed a harsh shadow over the young boy, causing him to despise the kind and quiet man. Though Sieg held a quiet hatred for his father in a lot of ways he also admired him and held him as a personal hero, a goal to aim himself toward. He would often try to help on projects in any way he could, so that some of that light would perhaps pass onto him. However the reason for his hatred for his hero came from the harsh criticisms of him mother.

His mother was a harsh but loving woman, always ready to point out his faults and compare him to his father’s ability, never letting Sieg forget for a moment that he was not good enough and while it was her own way to push her son towards greatness he just couldn’t understand it. This often led to massive shouting matches between the two, it didn’t matter to him that his mother was amazonian in height and quite scary. The two were just hard headed enough to fight sincerely at the start of almost every day. However the two did still love each other greatly and oft forgave each other the next day. Despite her loving heart and sincere want to see her son succeed it was not much comfort for the fragile hearted boy. 

In elementary school, his only friends were his bullies, only ever spending time with him because they knew they could pin him as their fall guy and get away scott free with their mischief. There was Dom, and odd but brilliant boy who often shot snide deriding remarks at the youth. Jayden, the leader of the group, who would often throw Sieg into messy situations with little help once he was caught. And then Matt who quite simply would treat him like dirt and trick him to doing things he didn’t want to do. Then there was his actual bully, Hunter, who would send Sieg home everyday with big bruises, new aches and pain to soothe before he made them worse the next day. Even the school itself treated him unkindly nearly expelling him several times for things he didn’t do, or even just acting like a kid. And even after his mother pulled him out for his own safety he felt completely alone, stuck in his house, a subject under the rule of his mother. 

So he took to games to find his solace, he fell in love with games like Golden Sun and Legend of Zelda. He would play his ever growing collection over and over till he knew the game inside and out and he daydreamed of what it would be like, living in these worlds free to explore and adventure. He wished to be a hero, to be worth something, rather than stuck in his dim room hiding somewhere, preferably the closet, and only getting an outsider's perspective. One of the games he loved the most was Pokemon, he would carefully choose his team out of the available pokemon in the region and would enjoy what story was there. As well as wish he was there, he thought constantly to himself how they wouldn’t reject him, they wouldn’t leave him to rot in his hell of loneliness.

He thought this same thing to himself one day after a particularly grueling day of schooling. “Why can’t she just see things from my point of view?” he thought aloud. “I mean I may love history, but I can’t see why screaming over it will help me learn it any better.” He grumbled while holding his head in his hands. Getting up to stretch his legs he walked over to his bedroom door, peering out to see if his mom was still steaming at him. He quietly crept out of the doorway and into the main area, with one quick sweep from right to left he could see the living room, the galley kitchen, and the den. His eyes focusing on the den, he saw his mom watching TV while folding some laundry she had apparently done during his sulking in his room. Pocketing his gameboy SP with his copy of Pokemon Emerald inserted into it he carefully walked over to his mom, gauging if she was going to yell at him some more or regard him sweetly.

He entered the den just behind the couch and announced his presence to her, figuring that she had cooled down by now. “Hey mom ca-” before he had even finished his question she screamed bloody murder in her own fright, she had been so focused on her task she hadn’t noticed young Sieg walking in. Stunned himself he gave a quick yelp of both fear and surprise, giving a small jump as well. Before his mom could even try to work herself into a tirade about how stupid it was sneaking up on her like that, though he didn’t try to, he gave a quick apology to her and asked his question. “Mom can I go rollerblading? I want to get some fresh air, maybe think for a while.” Breathing heavily his mom half yelled half heaved out, “Yes, fine, just get out of here before I change my mind.” Seeing his chance he fled like the wind, strapping on his skates, hooking up an Ipod to his headphones and went flying out the door and into the chilly Fall weather outside. 

For him it was his one chance to be free from all expectations and loneliness, letting his imagination run wild young Sieg would pretend he was anything from a swordsman with supernatural superpowers to a detective in a steampunk world. He had a route he would usually take around his neighborhood that gave him about 2 hours time to himself, at his current speed. Taking in the sights around him he first passed by his elementary school, which a short three years ago his mom had pulled him from because he was always bullied. He pushed the thought from his mind, zipping around the building in a practised motion and continued on. The next place of note for him was the hill within the conjoined neighborhood next to his own, soon it would be covered in snow and he would ask his dad to take him sledding on it. He gave a small smile from the thought of playing in the snow, maybe meeting a friend for the day and having fun. But before long he left as soon as he came and continued to the park with a small creek running down the center. Here he and a few friends he had not seen in a long while would go out to hunt for Easter eggs, they never won, but it was still a fun pastime. 

Taking a small break on the benches there he pulled out his SP, sure it wasn’t the best console he had by far but it was the one he could take out on these blading trips to relax by himself for a while. He began to play some more of his Emerald Version when a little question wandered it’s way into his mind, what would it be like to be a pokemon trainer? He figured it would be amazing, to be absolutely free from anything aside from you, your pokemon friends and the vast wild between towns. He felt that if he was a trainer he really could be one of the best, sure he never caught them all, but he felt raising a tough team you could trust was the better way to go. To him as was most any young player of Pokemon the most important Pokemon to him was his favorite starter, not necessarily his first. His Torchic played a big role in any playthrough after his first one with a Mudkip, it would always come in as “the big guns” if any of his pokemon were fainted and he felt done with the fight. After a good while playing he decided it was time to head back home, as much as he liked to be outside he really didn’t want his mom to blow up at him for another hour just because he didn’t come home soon enough. He quickly passed by a second school in his neighborhood and headed straight home fast as he could and before to much longer he was at his own front door ringing the doorbell to let his mom know he had come home.

His house was quite the interesting sight, it was a ranch style house with a large window in front, courtesy of replacing three smaller bay style windows the Mom simply hated with all her heart. The red brick of the house gave it a rather charming and slightly rustic look, the numbers on the sign which gave the house it’s precise location stood out from the back greenish metal and glistened like well polished brass. The two trees in front, an Ash and an Elm, gave the front yard plenty of shade and gave Sieg something to climb onto and play on in the front yard. The dogrun on the south side led to the backyard and the first thing you’d see is a great big Cottonwood tree, shading half the yard. A rope hung off of a particularly long branch and he would often take the rope and climb the boulder adjacent to the tree and swing from it to the Cottonwood while trying to perform tricks on it. Then there was a small grove of Aspens that grew just north of the rock with the Plum tree just nearby. If there was any tree in his house he hated it was the pine tree in the north east corner of their backyard, it was ugly, gross and the sap it dripped constantly was nearly as tough as hardened cement. If it got stuck in your hair you had to cut it off. If it got on your shoe throwing it out was the only thing you could do, if it was his decision he’d cut that tree down and put a new better one in it’s place, like a cherry tree, he liked cherry trees.

The first thing he saw through the door was his mom giving him a stern glare, he knew he was in trouble again, just not what for this time. As he settled into his home, took his skates off and sat down he waited for the volcanic lecture that was soon to come. While most kids would try to hide he knew it was no use, his mom knew every spot he could hide in and it would just lead to a longer lecture.

“You know damn well that you shouldn’t sneak on me like that! I almost died of a heart attack right there, you do this on purpose I swear, you just want me to die so you can play your crappy games all day! Well not today mister I’m taking it.” It had been a few hours since he had gotten home and his mother had been lecturing him the entire time, he felt bad for scaring his mom, really, it wasn’t his fault that he walked quietly. “What? My SP?!  Why? I did nothing wrong! It was an accident Mom I swear!” Sieg begged his mom not to take his SP to no avail, deep down he knew that once his Mom had decided on a punishment there was no if’s and’s or but’s, so sulking back into his room he closed the door to get some alone time and visit his friends in the next readily available medium, books.

He had read most of his books several times. Enough that he felt like he belonged in each story, like he knew every character and they were his real friends. He dug into some Harry Potter again, his Mom may have grounded him from one magical adventure, but he was not going to be weaseled out of his escapism so easily. Before he knew it the clock had chimed six times and without knowing, he had passed time away till dinner.

He set down his book peeked out of the door and saw his Mom and Dad greeting each other in the entryway and walked out of his room waiting for dinner and to try and watch some TV. He had hoped that he could get away with watching some Nightmare Before Christmas, as he particularly loved watching any of Tim Burton’s delightfully twisted creations, but no dice his Mom had wanted to watch the news, and in this house his Mom was Queen. So he slunk back to his room to grab his book and read it out in the living room, despite the TV being on, the living room was still quiet enough to read ,but when his Mom called for dinner time her could hear her loud and clear.

He heard his Dad talking about some massive problem that his Company had him working on and while on the outside he appeared proud and awed at how brilliant his father was, the darker recesses of his mind wished his dad was normal, because without any effort he had outshone his own best effort, his Mom quickly stating how Sieg ought to be more like his father, hard-working and thoughtful, Sieg just grumbled some unintelligible reply that sounded vaguely like, “Yes Ma’am.” She let the grumbling slide this time, since she seemed to be in a better mood after his Dad came home, ‘Thank the Lord’ he thought, and happily returned to his reading waiting patiently for a good home cooked meal. “Dinner time guys!” Mom had called the guys into the kitchen to grab their food, the dinner was pork roast with rice and broccoli, one of Sieg’s favorites. And after they had grabbed their food everyone went to their normal places: Sieg slunk off to some part of the house so he could read and enjoy his meal in peace, Dad had returned to his computer to continue working and when he was finished he’d surf the web and finally Mom was watching the TV since her favorite show at the time came on around this time sitting on the couch in the Den.

Once everyone had finished their meals they went to wind down and get ready for bed, young Sieg took a shower and started to wash up, Mom in the meantime had started putting some dishes in the dishwasher and Dad had started to brush his teeth. At nine o'clock it was time for our young protagonist to go to bed, however just like most every night he didn’t plan on sleeping anytime soon, partially because he wasn’t tired, but also because he had to have some level of rebellion and this was his way of undermining his Mom’s authority. She wished him good night and the young man listened till he heard the door close and saw the lights in the house go off. And thus young Sieg began to sneak around the house looking for his SP.

He silently slunk through the entire house trying his best not to make a sound lest he be in even bigger trouble than he was before. Quietly checking drawers and cupboards for where she might have hidden his game system. Eventually he found what he was looking for in his Mom’s personal drawer located in the kitchen close to the master bedroom door. Sieg lifted the system as quietly as he could, making sure not to disturb his two slumbering parents as the console lifted free he quietly slid the drawer back into place and slunk back into his room, prize in hand. As he made it back to the safety of his room he snuck a peek back to make doubly sure he’d gotten away with his game system undetected. Satisfied by what he saw he then quietly shut the door and nestled himself in bed, hiding underneath the blankets for the best warmth.

After a few hours of play and getting rather far into the game Felix ends up curling up and passing out on his bed his SP still on and the last words quietly leaving his lips were, “I wish I could be in the Pokemon world, I’d be much happier and less lonely there.” And with that he drifted of into a blissful slumber, hoping for a happier day ahead tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 1: Lost and Alone

When Siegfried Stone awoke from his blissful slumber there was one thing in particular that stood out to him, he was not in his bed, let alone his house. As he got up and looked around he saw he was in a forest, which was weird to him since there were no forests near where he lived at all. And then a second realization hit him, he was completely alone, He called for his mom and dad for what seemed like hours, though in reality was probably at max about ten minutes. He only stopped because his voice had died on him, once the gravity of his situation hit him he began to cry, because wherever he was, he was entirely alone, vulnerable and very afraid. After a long time of crying he realized that simply crying in the middle of nowhere wasn’t going to ensure his own survival and so with what strength he could manage he shakily got up and began to move in a direction hoping to find someone, anyone who could help him get home.

Sieg couldn’t keep his footing very well and therefore constantly tripped and fell, clearly from what he felt he was covered in bruises. He wanted to quit and go home, he wasn’t the happiest but at least he was safe and felt loved. He knew though that if he stayed here he may as well just throw himself off the highest ledge since that would accomplish the same thing. He shook the dark thought from his mind as he got up once again and continued to try and find someone to help him. Eventually the young man heard the tell tale sound of running water and with that sound thirst had hit him and he began to stumble his way toward the source. Sieg realized he had found a small river and that alone raised his spirits a little higher, he knelt down at the bank and began to scoop the water in his cupped hands and drank. He drank until he felt better and when the then took a moment to look in the water he noticed how muddy his face was from falling all those times and so washed his face while he was there.

The presence of water seemed to have calmed him down a little bit and with his nerves stabilized and his body feeling refreshed he began his search for civilization again. Sieg looked up at the sky and realized that it had gotten quite late, speeding up to try and find something sooner. As he was walking a thought hit him, ‘I’m way out in some forest and I’ve been wandering for a while, did I get kidnapped while I was asleep and wasn’t aware of it?’ The thought scared him and scarier ideas began to settle in his mind, ‘what if they’re hunting me and are just letting me wander around for their sick entertainment? Or did they think they got caught and dumped me in the middle of nowhere to escape prison time?’ Each new thought brought on a new, different and terrifying possibilities and each one held a separate shade of darkness on his situation. At that moment all he wanted was to find some sort of city or town or even village so he could try and find his way home. And before long he had finally done what just that, the trees began to thin out and he had found a clearing and in that clearing he had found a town and civilization. And for the moment hope had changed from a thin ray far off in the distance to a strong beam nearly within his reach.

It was a small little collection of homes, which was somewhat discouraging, but it’s much better than being off in the middle of nowhere. He ran for the first door he could see and knocked on it yelling out, “Is anyone in there? Please help me I’m lost and I need to find my way back home!” Sieg continued to bang on the door for quite a few minutes and realizing that no one was going to answer him his exhaustion hit him. Putting his back against the wall he began to slump over, his eyelids growing heavy he fought to stay awake, but to no avail and before long his exhaustion took over him.

Sieg found himself being shaken awake by someone and with little struggle his eyes shot open. Initially wincing at the bright light of day, he put his hand out to whoever was shaking him to give himself some room to adjust to the light of the sun. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light he saw a rather stout and hairy man, his birch colored hair and beard stuck out to him since he had not seen anyone who looked so odd. “Who are you, Where am I?” Sieg asked tentatively his mind still a haze.

“Whoa there kiddo easy, you’re not lookin’ too healthy so I’m gonna just pick you up and carry you in here to get a good look at ya.” The large man then stooped over and picked Sieg up, huffing slightly as he did, and took him inside the building he was slumped against. A few minutes later Sieg was laid down on a rather cold and uncomfortable table, His mind finally catching up with his body, he realized he was on an examination table. The Large man came over and now that Siegfried had a good look at his face something about it seemed awfully familiar, though he couldn’t place where he had seen him before.

“Now,” began the large man, “I don’t normally have to do this to humans, but for now I’ll make an exception.” ‘Meaning he’s probably a vet or something.’ Thought Sieg very plainly. He watched as numerous, odd machines buzzed, beeped and hummed around him, he wondered what they were doing and his answer arrived quickly after the silent question wandered into his mind. The large man turned to him and gave a smile, “Well aside from a bit of dehydration and exhaustion, and a fair amount of hunger you’ll be just fine. Of course once we get you back to your parents.”

The realization hit him quickly he had been laying here and he had forgotten what he wanted to ask so badly, “Sir, where exactly am I, and who are you?” The man had a confused look about him, but he decided to humor Sieg anyway. “Why you are in Littleroot town and my name’s Professor Birch, though everyone just calls me the Pokemon professor.”

Then everything hit young Sieg like a ton of bricks, the reason the man had seemed so familiar before was because he had seen him many times playing his pokemon game. And with that a second realization hit him, he wasn’t even on the same planet, let alone the same universe before. Home? Family? There was no place like that here, he was all alone and there was no bed to crawl into, to sleep this nightmare away.

Sieg pinched himself as hard as he could to make sure this was a nightmare, he was hoping beyond belief that this was only a nightmare. His only answer was pain, a verifier that this was indeed real and that his greatest dream had turned into his worst nightmare. Prof. Birch walked closer to Sieg and knelt down so he was eye level with the boy. “What’s wrong kiddo, you’ll be just fine, all we need to to find your parents so we can take you home.” He wanted to glare, to shout, to hit, to scream, but all he could manage was a few stray tears and some mumbled words. Prof. Birch leaned closer to hear better and said, “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you, please speak clearly.”

Siegfried now very upset, half cried out half shouted, “I don’t have a home to go to, and I don’t have any parents anymore, I am alone!” Having said it out loud made the realization sink further into reality for him and what was but a moment ago a few tear streaks, were now rivers flowing from his eyes. Birch understandably taken aback by this outburst gaped at the child bawling his eyes out in front of him. He wished he could comfort the young man, but could not find the words with which to do so and so instead he merely watched helplessly, as the boy cried for the home he no longer had.

After a good long cry Sieg calmed down a bit, while he was still torn apart by the fact that he was as far from home as possible and couldn’t go back. Though he wanted to cry more he knew crying wouldn’t get him anywhere, he started to take big breaths to try and steady his nerves. They were shaky at first, proof that his nerves were still rattled but as the minutes passed it became easier to breathe and he had calmed down a good deal. He next hopped off the table and began to steady his legs, watching as his legs reclaimed their boyish strength. He then turned to Birch who had been watching Sieg the whole time, “Please help me Professor, I don’t have a place to go anymore.”

Birch looked at the boy sympathetically, “I want to help you, but I’m just a Pokemon Professor, not an Adoption Agency. I can’t just give over to some couple and say here have a kid.” He patted the young man’s shoulder, “I can give you a place to stay a while, but unfortunately it can’t be permanent. I had a girl around until recently since she’s gone on her own Pokemon journey with a friend of hers.” And then a lightbulb went off in Sieg’s head, he may not have a home anymore, but he knew Hoenn well, especially so since he had played his Emerald version many times before.

“I won’t have to stay forever, I just have to stay around until I can handle a starter Pokemon and then I will head off on my journey as well Professor.” Sieg thought it was a perfect plan, sure there were some nasty gangs out there but if what he heard was right then May and Brendan were already ahead of him and dealing with the hard stuff. Prof. Birch sighed and shook his head, “It’s not the best plan, but it’s the only one we have, alright, I don’t like it, but the missus and I will take care of you until you can care for a starter Pokemon.” Sieg was now feeling much happier now than he was even a little while ago, with a Pokemon journey looming in the future for him, he felt excited about how his life will be for him, even without family or home.

It had been a few weeks since Sieg had been transported to this world, and he was beginning to adjust to his new life in the Pokemon world. He didn’t have friends, just the kids in the other houses who would torment him relentlessly. And while the Professor and his wife had taken care of him, they didn’t feel like family, he didn’t hold it against them and he was grateful for the care and preparation for his journey. But they were just strangers to each other and the two adults had simply been kind enough to show him the ropes. 

He had taken time to carefully go through the rulebook on how to care for Pokemon, it had seemed fairly the same to the game though he did have to try and keep the Pokemon well fed and hydrated. Seemed sensible enough, these were living creatures after all and everything, even Pokemon, had to eat drink and go to the bathroom. Thankfully because of how the government was structured, Poke-centers were free, just like in the games and while most of the care fell upon him, money could be earned easily as well. Though money really didn’t matter to him, he just wanted adventure to see things others hadn’t before and to befriend many cool Pokemon.

On one particular rainy day Sieg had finished re-familiarizing himself with the rules of Poke-battles, as his studies pulled to a close in the afternoon the rain had let up enough that he could go out. Feeling a little cabin fever, he told the Professor he was going out for a bit, to which he heard a telltale, “mhm.” To Seig that sound let him know that Birch had heard him, and said okay, but was to concentrated to give a legible answer. With that he grabbed his jacket and ran out into the light rain, feeling the tiny rain droplets fall onto his face helped him to relax, and the smell of rainfall was one Sieg thoroughly enjoyed. He began to walk around Littleroot town when he noticed the band of kids who normally bullied him huddled around something else. In between their legs he could see small patches of yellow and orange.

Sighing to himself and knowing he’d regret doing it he walked over to the group, hoping he could break up whatever abuse they were dishing out without too much pain on his part. As he approached he heard the kids jeering at their victim, they were loud enough to intimidate whatever was being encircled, but still quiet enough to not get caught by their parents. “What’re you morons picking on now?” Sieg scowled at the group and called out harshly, though his initial insult was ignored by them, “What? Too busy picking on the weak to notice me, wow you must be grown ups huh?” With his next jeer he finally caught their attention, the group turned around to see their favorite target mocking them.

Carver Fyst, the biggest bully and clearly the leader turned around and sneered “What’s it to ya, huh? We’re busy we’ll beat the tar outta ya another time wimp.” Carver was quite the unseemly child to behold, he was obscenely fat, he dark beady eyes flitted to and fro as if searching out for either his next meal or his next victim. His blond greasy hair was an unkempt mess that looked more like a rat’s nest rather than human hair.

“Yeah, why don’t ya puss out and run away huh? We’re busy here.” The next boy in the huddle to face Sieg was a thin sniveling boy named Mason Snyder. Mason was always the type of boy who wouldn’t get involved in fight unless the person being beaten up was already on the ground. He often thought up of new nasty thing to call people, whether he picks it up from his parents, or elsewhere nobody really knows for sure.

Jay Ice the third boy in the group simply shot Sieg a nasty glare and curled his lip in a snarl. A rather muscular and strong boy for his age Jay was clearly the muscle of the group towering his peers in both height and raw manpower. Befitting his giant image, Jay rarely spoke and mostly let actions convey his sentiments instead. Easily stronger than the other kids plus his short blonde hair and cold steel eyes made him look all the sacrier.

The fourth boy, Scut Farkus, was a particularly nasty piece of work himself, though he was the poorest and on the weaker side of the group, Scut had the quickest temper, ruddy red hair and black angry eyes. Despite Jay’s strength nobody in the town matches Scuts violent streak. He’s one of the only kids to have actually committed any crimes. Though they were small Scut has already made a rather dark name for himself among the kids from the neighboring town down the way. “You wanna get in our way chump, I’ll cut ya.”

The final bully in the group, Biff O’Doyle looked over the other kids in the ring peering at Sieg smugly. The local rich, uber soiled kid, Biff may not have strength, intimidation, steeled nerves, nor even much leadership ability, but what he has, he has in spades and that was charisma and money. Using his wealth and charisma Biff has always succeeded at either blowing off any trouble the gang gets into or pinning the blame on the victim. Ensuring that the group always gets away with their troublemaking. It doesn’t help that Biff’s well kept black hair and warm seeming chocolate eyes help to endear him to most of the adults around. “Hmph, playing the hero are we? You really are a stupid kid aren’t ya?”

With the group’s attention gained, Sieg realized that what he was doing was very stupid, but having been the butt of their torment even for the short time he’d been there, he knew he didn’t want anyone, or anything to have to go through the same punishment. “So have you fallen so low that you pick on things that can’t rightly defend themselves from you, how sad, it seems as though you have no dignity left.” Sieg shook his head to emphasize the point he made, this pissed Carver off, signaling to the rest of his little gang, they then began to surround Sieg instead. It was only then he saw what they were picking on, a young shiny Torchic, the little bird was shivering and was clearly afraid. Now angry, he wanted to beat the tar out of them for doing this.

As he came out of his thoughts Sieg realized he had been surrounded by Carver, Biff and the rest. Scut had pulled out a new knife and began to play with it tossing it from one hand to another a malicious grin tore it’s way across Scut’s face. Carver chimed in, pleased by the look of fear the now had worked it’s way into Sieg’s face, “Aww what’s wrong, you ain’t scared of a little ‘ol knife are ya? I mean you’ve had worse than that right? Which means you should be tough enough to take what we dish out right~?” The way that Carver had put an emphasis darkly on the last few words made Sieg’s blood freeze. As he tried to plan how to get out of this without dying he felt something brush against his legs, it was the Torchic, despite shaking in abject terror, the little bird had plucked up enough courage to try and help it’s would be rescuer.

Grimacing, Sieg wondered if it was possible to just grab the Torchic and run, it’d be the best, safest option, but looking around that wasn’t going to happen. He decided that if he couldn’t run, and knowing he couldn’t talk his way out he’d dig his heels in and defend himself and the little bird by his feet. Carver motioned for Jay to close in and start the beatdown, to which Jay cracked his knuckles and approached Sieg in response. Sieg waited and watched like a hawk, though his main focus was on Jay he tried his best to stay aware of everyone else. Towering over him Jay swung his meaty fist, though he had caught wind of the incoming fist, Sieg was still struck hard and knocked back. Though he maintained enough composure as to not fall just yet, rubbing the spot he had been hit he knew it’d be a nasty bruise tomorrow. Catching sight of Jay charging toward him and raring up another strike, Sieg rolled out of the way causing Jay to crash into Carver. Since Jay had been running at high speed the collision took them out of the little circle for the moment.

Sieg turned to the next most likely attacker, Scut, who was already running at him swinging his knife around. Taken aback Sieg couldn’t react in time but the little Torchic jumped up trying to peck at Scut, though the bird instead got cut across the beak by the knife. Seeing the little yellow, sparkling bird get cut so badly angered Sieg to no end and so he charged at Scut fully intending to knock the lout out cold. Scut barely reacted in time and slashed Sieg’s face slicing his lip wide. However, full of determination and adrenaline, Sieg continued forward regardless and slugged Scut as hard as he could, sending the boy on his back and out cold. Full of rage he gave a burning glare to Biff and Mason, the two boys who were more cowardly than their compatriots flinched in fear. Quickly picking up the rest of the boys and scurrying off into Oldale town nearby to lick their wounds.

Brought from his rage Sieg quickly looked over at the Torchic who was bleeding rather badly, he approached the bird and gingerly picked it up. Beginning to walk back to the Professor’s house knowing that he could help the poor Pokemon. Once he had made it to the door he carefully untangled an arm to open the door, there was a small chirrup of protest from the Pokemon and once the door was open he replaced the arm to provide better support to the bird. Sieg called out, “Birch! I have a pokemon that needs your help badly!” Hearing the quick thumps it wasn’t long until the stocky Professor was in sight, giving a shocked scan of the two of them. Trying not to freak out the Professor urged them back out, walking out with them he grabbed a pokeball, “Salamence fly us over to Petalburg and quick!” Released from the ball the large dragon pokemon growled at them, Birch grabbed Sieg and the Torchic and the Salamence took off. It was a quick flight over to Petalburg and once they were in front of the Pokemon center Birch ushered them in right away. It was about this time that the adrenaline pumping through Sieg’s veins wore off and he felt a burning pain that went from right next to his left nostril all the way down to his lower jaw. He tried to put on a brave face and take it “like a man” but the pain was too much, at first he groaned but as his mouth began to move to groan in pain, the sensation became much worse and he howled out loud. Dropping to his knees but careful not to drop the pokemon in his arms he screamed and cried, the salt from his tears just made it hurt worse, until he felt a prick in his shoulder from the back and then he fell unconscious.

Every once in awhile Sieg would wake up slightly from a burning pain in his mouth, every time he does he feels groggy, and when he tried to move his body wouldn’t respond. If he was more conscious he would’ve panicked but at the moment he realized he couldn’t move his consciousness faded back into black. Sieg at some point in time snapped wide awake, he looked around the room, he felt confused since the last thing he remembered was waking into the Poke-center and then blinding pain, then nothing after that. At which point he remembered his mouth had hurt so he tried to raise his arm to see what was wrong, at which point he realized he was restrained to the cot he was on. Panic was starting to set in but he tried to push it down, he tried to speak out for help, or anything, but he couldn’t move his mouth, the panic he had just managed to push down a moment before resurfaced and he began to struggle against his restraints.

The door to his room flew open as a doctor flew through and pricked Sieg with a needle and he felt his body go limp and numb. Logic went out the window at this point and panic set in full effect while he couldn’t move his body his eyes were wide with fear and were rapidly trying to find something to fight with. Just as he was about to try again the door opened again and Birch stepped in, looking at what was going on he shot a hot glare at the doctor, “I understand doing this when he was unconscious and struggling in pain but now that he is awake and aware how about you just explain the situation to him, he’s not stupid you know?”

The doctor sighed, Sieg who had calmed down from Professor Birch’s presence gave the doctor a patient and expectant look, “You had a nasty cut down doe to the bone, you were thrashing while we were trying to fix you up and so we had to restrain you, you kept thrashing about and screaming so we had to temporarily paralyze you. Once you were still enough to operate on we realized the injury was too rough to sew closed so we had to do our best. We glued the wound closed as best we could which is why you can’t open your mouth, the glue will dissolve once the wound is healed, but please until then don’t try to do anything rash and refrain from speaking as much as possible.”

Sighing heavily through his nose Sieg wasn’t angry, or even panicked, he was just tired and sad. As the doctor un-paralyzed him, he thought of the shiny Torchic he tried to rescue, waving over to the Professor to grab his attention he tried to sign his query about the little Pokemon. Birch, understanding the signing smiled and replied, “The little Torchic is going to be just fine, the cut was deep as well but it wasn’t rough like yours. In fact the Pokemon was looking around, I assume for you Sieg.” Hearing this Sieg felt a little happy and decided to see the feathery little ball of fluff, being ushered out of the room by Prof. Birch he and Birch headed over to where the Torchic was resting up.

Walking through the doors of the Poke-med bay Siegfried saw a bunch of medical equipment being moved around and nurses running to and fro trying to care for the wards of the Poke-center, walking along with Birch he took note of different pokemon in various states, from nasty scrapes to intense injuries. Before long they came upon the room the Torchic was staying in, Birch gestured for Sieg to go on in, not wasting a moment he pushed aside the curtain and sitting there on the bed was the Torchic staring at him curiously. Realizing that the Pokemon might not recognize him well with the wound on his face he lifted his hand to the Pokemon to smell. With a trill of excitement and happiness the bird jumped into his arms, making happy cooing noises and nuzzling into him. The corners of Sieg’s mouth slightly perked up in happiness at the little Pokemon simple and pure expression of happiness.

Prof. Birch who had been watching this little exchange quietly walked in and put his hand of Sieg’s shoulder, “It looks like you two already have quite the bond, if you’d like she can be your starter for your Pokemon Journey.” hearing the news Sieg nodded his head vigorously in affirmation, “All right, but you’ll have to wait till your lip heals before you start.” Birch stated caringly, “Until then how about you two get to know each other, spend some time together, you’ll have to do it once you set out anyway.” The two looked at each other and nodded brightly, happy to be able to rest and relax together while they heal up.

Having already become familiar with the textbooks Prof. Birch had given him, Sieg and the Torchic, whom had named Blair, instead took their time reading other books. Sieg had found it a relief that despite how different the world was from his own, there were a few things he enjoyed that had carried over. Many of the Nintendo game titles he had played existed here and the first he played together with Blair were his personal favorites, the Legend of Zelda. As they were healing they couldn’t do much at the moment so they instead enjoyed relaxing together. One of Blair’s favorite things to do it seemed was to read books together with Sieg, they even had a little ritual before they read together. Sieg would drape a warm blanket around his shoulders and sit in the corner, cross legged and then Blair would come and sit in his lap. Holding the book in such a way that they both could see. Since he couldn’t talk because of his injury he would instead wait for Blair to signal that she was done reading so that he would turn the page. They often fell asleep in that very position cuddled up together, Birch often came in to check on them only to end up leaving once he had closed the book, with bookmark in place and put it away.

Time had passed quickly for the two and before long their wounds had healed, leaving behind twin scars that they would carry for their life. But even then the bond that they had started nurturing in that time would last for the rest of their lives, one that would be tested by the journey ahead. Having prepared now to take the first step into a brave and dark new world they walked out of Littleroot town and into Route 1. “Okay Blair lets get some training here, and maybe even find a new friend.” Sieg called out to Blair excitedly who let out a bright chirp in response, not before too long they had encountered their first battle as a wurmple hopped from the tall grass and attacked without warning. Blair, who was caught off guard, was knocked back hard, but she quickly got back up and rared up for the fight. “Blair use scratch!” called Sieg and without hesitation Blair swung her little talons raking the wurmple, but it was not done yet. It let out a sticky string from it’s mouth, which was hard to move with and slowed Blair down, “Blair finish this quick with scratch!” Blair who had been struggling with the string managed to eke out a hit on the wurmple with her talons, scaring the wurmple off and leaving the pair with their first victory.

Sieg who showed a great deal of care towards his partner took time to unwrap her from the string she was caught in and smoothed out her feathers, and before long she was good as new. They hit training with renewed vigor from their first victory, before long Blair was already getting quite strong, making the two proud of themselves. And then on their way to leave Route 1 an angry Poochyena stood between them and he exit, she seemed to be the area’s boss given her incredible presence. And it also seemed that she wouldn’t let them out unless they got past her, giving each other a look they engaged her in battle.

Blair struck first scratching at the Poochyena with her talons, but it didn’t seem to do much, while she reciprocated by biting down on Blair. Who then screamed out in pain wriggling around until she got free, wincing as she landed on her feet, Sieg knew that to win, he couldn’t play the strength card alone. He observed closely and tried to make decisions for the best to bring them another solid win, but the Poochyena was tough and winning seemed a difficult battle of attrition than an actual road. Each time they got ahead the mighty pup closed the gap and got ahead herself, finally after what felt like an age of fighting the boss dog looked like it was tiring out. Remembering that he had some Pokeballs with him Sieg threw one to try and capture this powerful Poochyena. It tapped the Poochyena on the head, drawing the pokemon inside inside the pokeball, it fell on the ground it wobbled once, twice, three times before it was still and the Pokemon was caught.

Blair and Sieg cheered once the fight was finished and with that Blair fell over in exhaustion. Quickly gathering up the little feathered fluffball in his arms Sieg went to the Pokecenter and healed the both of the Pokemon up. With Blair resting comfortably in his arms and the new addition in his Pokeball Sieg went to find a room for the evening while they rest up. He laid Blair on the bed to rest peacefully while he released the Poochyena from his Pokeball, to try and settle things a bit more amicably. The minute he released the Pooch from the ball though Sieg got bitten by a far more angry dog then he had captured, though Sieg in great pain tried not to kick him by reflex as the Poochyena would only sink his teeth in deeper. Sieg knelt down to the pup and lightly bopped the dog on the nose, in it’s surprise the Poochyena let go of Sieg’s leg and backed up a bit. Feeling the crushing force that was applied to his leg lift Sieg let out a light hiss in both pain and relief. Calling to dog over to him, the pooch reluctantly walked over to Seig who was still holding his leg. With the dog next to him he patted the dog’s head and told him, since you were such a tough gal only a tough name’ll fit ya, I’ll call you Morta from now on. With that said Sieg got up on his feet shakily and began to limp his way out so he could be patched up by the nurses downstairs, who were quite a shock to see his leg in such a mangled state. They quickly whisked him off to repair his leg, Morta still just stood there confused about what had just taken place, when Blair woke up.

Blair awoke to see the Poochyena she had fought with and helped her good friend Sieg to capture. She hopped down from the bed and walked over to the rather bewildered looking Pokemon. “ _ What’s wrong there? You look as though you’ve seen a Gengar. _ ” She chuckled a bit at her own statement before the Poochyena answered her, “ _ Honestly, I’ve never seen a human so odd I mean I bit him and yet he didn’t hit me, instead he patted my head, gave me a name and limped out of here as though I had never bitten him. _ ” Blair looked at him with understanding, “ _ I don’t really know his deal, but he’s a good trainer that’s for sure. Maybe not the greatest person, but better than a fair amount of those who walk around and parade their Pokemon around as pets. _ ” Blair said matter of factly, Morta turned to look at the Torchic in from of her, “ _ Oh yeah and how did you two meet, I bet he beat the crap out of you or he was given you by his doting parents, like any other snot nosed brat. _ ” Blair sniffed at the sentiment and pointed to her scar, “ _ Well if you wanna know that badly he defended me from some thugs where we got some matching scars. _ ” She then puffed out her chest proudly, “ _ If it weren’t for him I’d be in a lot worse situation right now, I like him a bit, though not enough to say I’m his best friend, but I respect his care for Pokemon. _ ” After the trade off they each traded names and walked away neither really in a mood to care to talk to the other anymore.

Luckily that didn’t have to last long since Sieg walked into the room with a crutch under one arm and a tired look in his eye. Both of his pokemon regarded him, but only Blair came near as she she walked beside him, hoping to help prop him up somewhat. “Sorry you guys, not going anywhere for tonight, doctor’s orders, mine too since I’m beat from today’s excitement.” Sieg flopped down on his bed, with Blair curling in near him and Morta curled up at the foot of the bed.


	3. Chapter Two: The Journey’s Start and a Rare Meeting

Sieg had a horrible nightmare that night, in which he and his new team were walking along a trail, Blair making happy cooing noises, Morta was pouting a bit, but was still having fun and Sieg was leading the group, he might have been on crutches but was still making good pace. The group had been making good pace in their training each becoming quite strong in their own regard. That was until a storm rolled in, it was clear all day until a few moments ago and now it was pouring sheets of rain. He felt a gut reaction to hide under a certain tree, but it felt sketchy and didn’t seem to offer much protection from the rain. So he went under a different tree, when lightning struck the tree he was under and fried the whole group to a crisp. As the last thoughts crossed his mind all he could wonder was, ‘Is this how my life is going to end? Before it even began? Why?’  
And as the last thought crossed his mind Sieg shot awake careful not to scream and wake the others. First thing he did was to check himself and make sure he wasn’t fried he then gave the same treatment to Blair and Morta, who stirred a bit, but were ultimately unaffected by their trainers investigation. In a cold sweat Sieg got up and wandered around the room he was in, looking out the windows fearfully and heading to the bathroom to clean up. “What was that?” Sieg wondered aloud, afraid the dream would happen again he refused to sleep at all. And until the sun rose he tried to wrack his brains to figure it out and lo’ the sun did rise to a very tired Siegfried and his two well rested Pokemon.  
Having gotten no sleep, Sieg was dragging his feet, but despite that the group made good progress in their growth, which made Sieg feel a bit uneasy, but he tried to tiredly shrug it off. He had decided to first head North of Oldale for a bit and train there, They had beaten a youngster fairly swiftly thanks to Blair,s growth and Morta’s toughness. Playing around in the tall grass a bit they decided to take a break for the morning and relax, a Zigzagoon came up to investigate and began to rummage around in their sack. Noticing this Sieg pulled his bag away, but the Zigzagoon was stubborn and fought to keep the bag at investigation level. Continuing to poke around in the bag the Zigzagoon accidentally bumped his nose against a Pokeball and got himself captured. Bewildered and also feeling ready to move on Sieg and the group packed up and got ready to move on to Route 102.  
As they made their way over to Petalburg, a decent number of trainers for a beginner challenged them. He counted off three youngsters, a bug catcher and a lass. With Petalburg nearby the small group took a break from training to have some lunch and rest awhile. They sat down in the shade together and Sieg pulled off his pack to pull out some food he got prepared before they headed off for the day. He pulled out a BLT for himself, a few meat patties for Morta and a couple handfuls of seeds for Blair. He decided that now was the time to pull out the little troublemaker and settle things.  
The first thing that happened was the racoon looked around confused and then when he laid his eyes on Sieg he gave his head a little tilt. Sieg simply sighed and said, “Well you made yourself part of our little team here you can stay if you like but you don’t have to. But if you want to stay you’re gunna need a name.” The Zigzagoon looked around and nodded happily, if still a bit confused. “Alright then you’re name’ll be Jeff, you seem like a Jeff to me.” Laughing together and sharing a meal had been fun and they began to felt recharged. However that fun soon dissipated when menacing clouds began to gather, a crack of lightning, a roll of thunder and it began to rain hard on our group.  
By this point Sieg was very anxious and tried to steer the group to Petalburg, but got lost in the heavy rain. That was when Sieg had a feeling similar to that in his dream, looking around he spotted the tree he saw in his dream. Not wishing to repeat the gruesome end of his nightmare he grabbed the group and dove for the tree, finding a small hollow inside to weather out the rain inside. Once they were settled in he heard a voice call out for help in the rain, Sieg didn’t want to leave the confines of the dry hollow they found, but as the cries grew more and more desperate he went out in search of the source, telling Morta, Jeff and Blair to stay put for now. Making his way through the rain he got closer and closer to where he thought the cries were coming from, thinking about it he wondered why the cries weren’t being drowned out by the rain, but he didn’t care at this point. After a few more feet he found what was trying to call for help, a young Ralts, which explained why he heard the cries over the rain. Sieg knelt down and tried as cautiously as he could to approach the little Ralts trying to emanate as much positive emotion as he could despite being tired, cold, wet and a bit panicked since his nightmares were coming true. The little psychic hesitated for a moment weighing its options before jumping onto Sieg’s hands. Bringing the Pokemon back to the hollow in the tree to dry off with the rest of them, he set the Ralts onto his lap and Blair hopped on his lap with the Ralts. Morta sniffed a bit and curled up next to Sieg and Jeff looked around confused, but happy that they might be making another friend real soon. And just like that they waited out the rain, eventually falling asleep together.  
Sieg thankfully was already very tired and had a dreamless rest while the rain came down overhead. When he came to the rain had gone and Morta had left to check to make sure it wasn’t coming back again. Feeling movement on his lap Sieg looked down and saw that while Blair was fast asleep the Ralts was beginning to stir and wake up. Siegfried loved his Ralts when he first caught one back in his world and hoped that the little psychic would stay. He gently set down Blair without waking her to address, the Ralts properly, “Well I wouldn’t say our meeting was ideal and I don’t want to make you stay if you don’t have to, but if you’d like I’d enjoy your company on our little journey here.” He tried to sound as polite as possible, the little Ralts gave it some thought, clearly this Pokemon was far more cautious than his previous new friend Jeff. After a short time of deliberating, the young ralts gave out a positive feeling and bowed slightly to gesture that indeed the pokemon would. Giving out a breath of relief Sieg then proceeded to the next topic, he reached into his bag which had dried out since then and pulled out a pokeball, showing it to the ralts. “This is a Pokeball, I can’t really explain the particulars since I don’t get it, but essentially this will make sure that no other trainer can steal you from me. Most trainers always seem to keep their pokemon in the balls, but I personally like to keep my team out. All you have to do is push the white button in the middle and it’s done.” The Ralts looked at Sieg and tilted their head and then pressed the button going into the Pokeball, it rolled in his palm once and went silent capturing the Ralts.  
Immediately letting his new friend out, adorably the Ralts tilted its head again, grinning Sieg then said, “Well now that that’s done we need to decide on a name for you since I can’t keep calling you by your species.” The Ralts gave a polite nod agreeing to the notion. “Well, um are you male or female?” Sieg let out very awkwardly, “I don’t wish to be rude but I don’t want to give you an embarrassing name you’ll regret later.” The Ralts blushed heavily and gave out very vague psychic signs and after a few minutes of playing some very odd and awkward sign language Sieg figured out that his Ralts was a girl. “Ok.” He started shyly, “ I’ll list out some names and you tell me which one you like best ok?” The Ralts nodded happy to be past that embarrassing display, “Rose?” She shook her head, “Ellen?” Rejected, “Sylvie?” Another turned down name. Sieg had a hard time with names, both remembering and thinking them up, but looking up at the tree that had saved them from the storm he saw it had Camelia flowers on them and remembered that there was a lovely name attached to the flower. Thinking long and hard about it he had almost given up when he remembered it. “How about Tsubaki?” The Ralts gave it some thought, then gave a wide grin and gave a hard nods and radiated positive feelings. “Well that settles that, you shall be called Tsubaki from now on, welcome aboard our merry little crew.” Grinning and giving a hug to the little Ralts, Sieg then put her down and moved over to a little bundle still lazily dozing away.  
He smiled warmly at the slumbering form of Blair and gently shook her to try and stir her so everyone could get to Petalburg in a reasonable time. At first Blair just turned over and continued to sleep, but before too long she was looking blearily up at Sieg. He picked her up and set her on his shoulder, “Come on, Fireball, time to get up and head into the next town.” Sieg had just thought that nickname for Blair on the fly and looked rather proud for it. Before he went out to grab the attention of the rest of his team, he felt a little tug on his pants. Looking down he saw Tsubaki who was holding her arms up looking like she wanted a ride on Sieg’s shoulders as well. “Okay Tsubaki come on up.” Chuckling Sieg picked up his new friend and placed her on his other shoulder, happy to have such lovely company.  
He walked out from the tree and garnered Morta and Jeff’s attention, “C’mon you two we’re all heading off for Petalburg for the first leg out to Rustboro.” quickly the Poochyena and Zigzagoon fell into line as the made their way to the next town. It was a leisurely walk to town and they were stopped by one more Lass who wanted to fight them. “Bet you can’t beat my pokemon, it’s tough as nails.” Sieg just gave a look to his pokemon, “You wanna bet? Morta you start.” Morta hopped into the space in between the trainers and took her ready position. The Lass then sent in a Lotad, “Go Lotad show them what we’re made of!” Sieg just shrugged, “Morta use Bite.” Morta then charged in and bit the Lotad who promptly fainted easily. “How did- what happ- huh!?” The Lass could barely get out a proper sentence in shock while Sieg was rewarding Morta with a good scratching behind the ears, her favorite spot he had learned. “Well we’ve been training pretty hard all day so my team is already pretty tough, sorry to have treated your friend roughly. As recompense I’ll walk with you to the Pokecenter in Petalburg so you can get him healed.” Sieg offered very kindly, the girl though shot him a look that said she was upset, “Fine, I don’t think I have too much choice at the moment anyway.” She shot him one last half hearted glare before they began to walk the rest of the way to Petalburg.  
Thankfully the walk the rest of the way was uneventful, but there was one thing that made Sieg increasingly uncomfortable. Aside from the quiet chatter of his pokemon it was dead quiet, he couldn’t blame the girl for being upset at him, he did win rather handily and it probably seemed unfair. But he wished she’d at least ease the tension by talking or something. What made it worse is every once in awhile she’d shoot him a glare as if he’d shot the poor Pokemon rather than just faint it. Finally after what felt like hours of stiff silence the had made it to the Pokecenter, The Lass gave her Pokemon to Nurse Joy and Sieg rented a room for the night since he planned on staying in the area to train Tsubaki and to spoil all his Pokemon a little for their hard work. He left the Pokecenter, Pokemon in tow and felt much more relieved now that he wasn’t under the heated microscope of the Lass’ glares. Before he went out to train Tsubaki up so she wouldn’t lag behind the team he went to the Mart to buy some potions and gauge to see if his pokemon wanted anything from there. While he and his team headed over to the Mart he gave a cursory glance around the small quaint town. It was quiet, peaceful and full of happy people and seeing that brought a small happy smirk to Sieg’s face.  
Walking into the Mart he told his Pokemon to find something they’d like and he’d buy it for them as presents for the end of the day. Since he had a decent amount of starting money from the wins and his base starting balance he had enough to spoil them all a little bit. Watching his Pokemon dart every which way he decided to walk up to the Pokemart attendant. “Hello sir, what do you need today?” Asked the clerk politely. “Well I need some potions, I got a new Pokemon on my team and I want to make sure she can keep up and handle herself, also I’m buying some presents for my Pokemon so when they come back with what they want I’ll be buying those too.” The clerk gave him a slight look, but brushed it off immediately and got out the potions, ten in all. Looking back for his Pokemon Sieg noticed Morta had come back first and in her maw was something that made him tilt his head then laugh. Morta had come back with a pair of Black Glasses, probably so she’d look cool, so Sieg grabbed them and placed them on the counter with the potions. Jeff came back next with something just as strange but for different, quite baffling reasons. Jeff had picked up a Shroomish Pokedoll and dragged it over to the counter looking up at Sieg expectantly, slightly perturbed he added the Shroomish doll to the pile on the counter.  
He then waited for Blair and Tsubaki to come back with their items, but since they were taking a while he decided to go and look for them. He looked around at the aisles before he spotted them in an aisle for accessories, he sauntered over to see what they were looking at at what he saw them hold made him grin warmly at the two. In Tsubaki’s tiny hands were a cute little necklace and locket, she seemed to be very nervous making a move toward the counter only to stare at the other necklaces again. Blair on the other hand was confidently holding on to a Black bow that she seemed to have taken to and was instead trying to encourage her new found friend to ask for the necklace. Smiling he made his presence known to the two Pokemon, “Tsubaki would you like that necklace?” Sieg asked pointing to the one in her hands. Tsubaki merely blushed and fretted some more, “It’s okay I’ll go ahead and get it for you, no need to fret.” He then gently took the necklace from Tsubaki’s hands and with Blair and Tsubaki following behind closely. Sieg then put the necklace and the bow, once he had gotten it from Blair, on the counter, “Okay that should do it.” The clerk rang him up to which Sieg happily paid. Gathering all his potions and presents he then walked back to the Pokecenter to put the presents in the room for later, for now it was time to train Tsubaki up for the rest of the day.  
Just in case he brought the rest of the crew but also allowed them time off from training to relax and play until he needed them to switch in for a fight Tsubaki wasn’t ready for. He quickly learned her moveset was a little unusual being, Growl, Confusion, Calm Mind and Teleport. Most of those moves were fairly normal for a Ralts her level to have but Calm Mind was something most would have had at much later levels. But with that aside they worked hard together and brought up Tsubaki to a suitable level, ditching Growl for Disarming Voice and as the sun had set, everyone had gotten stronger. Going back to the center to stay the night, Sieg ordered some food for dinner as the Pokemon all began to enjoy their gifts.  
Morta had put on her sunglasses slickly by flicking them into the air with her muzzle and catching them where they needed to be on her face. Jeff and curled around his Pokedoll and was lightly chewing on it happy with his little comfort item. Tsubaki had managed to finagle her new necklace around her head where it hung from her neck, she stared at the accesory quite happily while one was having trouble with her gift, Blair. Blair not having the proper limbs to put on her bow was struggling quite a lot until fed up with trying to get it to work herself caught Sieg’s attention so he could put it on her instead. “You having trouble huh?” he stared at her warmly, to which she nodded glumly. “Okay I’ll get that on ya just hold still.” He sat down by her so she could perch in his lap and relax while he tried to get her bow to wrap around her feathers tight enough not to fall off. At first it was tough, he never tied something on someone else and Blair kept squirming, but after ten minutes of trying, failing, getting everyone to settle in for another round to fail again, he finally got the bow on Blair just right. She immediately hopped off to go and look at herself in the mirror, admire the lovely addition to her visage and preen herself to make her look even better. Sieg chuckled at this, with a small smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. Feeling tired from training everybody went to sleep pretty fast, Morta and Jeff took their own sides of the bed, Jeff curled up to his Shroomish doll, and Blair and Tsubaki had joined Sieg in the bed curled up together to rest until a brighter tomorrow.  
Sieg woke up with a start looking around groggily he noticed something was off that brought him to his senses. He woke up in a place he didn’t remember going to sleep in. His first instinct was to look around for his new friends and Blair. But upon a cursory scan he didn’t see them, so he tried to call for them, but to his horror he couldn’t make a sound outside of a wheezing sound. Scared now he tried to stand up only to realize his hands were bound and bolted to the ground. His eyes darted around the room the twilight of a sunset burning in his eyes when he heard a door open. Looking in the direction of the sound he saw a shadowy figure approach him, “Ah looks like you're awake, good~.” The figure said threateningly, “well thn considering you looked loaded I assumed you were worth something to your parents, but it looks like they’ve abandoned you. So you have no use to me goodbye~.” with a horrid pain in his head he faded into blackness.  
He awoke with a start and freezing cold sweat covered his body, taking a sweep around the room he realized it was familiar, but having a bad feeling still looming in his gut Sieg decided it was time to head out somewhere else. Quickly and quietly he got changed and packed in the dark to avoid suspicion. Next he went and gently roused all his pokemon, Blair protested a bit, but upon seeing the pale and frightened look on Siegfried’s face she quieted down. Everyone seemingly both confused and scared walked out of the room and headed for Petalburg’s exit, all the while a looming feeling of dread was skulking around just behind them, lurking in the town like a bad omen. This was how his journey came to start, it wasn’t at all how he had wanted it to go, he wanted to walk out to the new world confident and excited and yet here he is creeping out of the city, in the middle of the night, his tail between his legs and scared of something he wasn’t even sure was there.


End file.
